ISLAMABAD: Two persons arrested by the capital police in connection with the murder of an army officer were second generation Afghan migrants, a police officer told Dawn.

The accused belonging to different Afghan families migrated to Pakistan during the Afghan war, the officer close to the investigation said, adding that these families settled in different parts of the country before moving to the capital.

The two accused, aged 19 and 20, were born in the capital and lived in slums located in Golra.

Both had been partners in street crimes for the past few years, the officer said. They used to carry out criminal activities on motorcycles without registration plates and snatched cash and mobile phones from citizens mostly in Saddar and Industrial Area zones.

A lone eyewitness to the murder of the army officer identified them as the killers during an identification parade held at Adiala jail.

The challan has been sent to the police legal branch for submission to the trial court, the officer added.

Maj Mohammad Laraib of the Special Services Group (SSG) was stationed at Attock and had come to Islamabad on Nov 21, 2019, on an official duty. After finishing his work, he was visiting G-9 along with a friend where the accused murdered him.

Four teams of CIA officials were constituted under supervision of SP (investigation) Dr Syed Mustafa Tanvir to probe the case.

Different angles were looked into during the investigation including family enmity, terrorism and robbery.

After ruling out enmity and terrorism, the investigators approached a number of street crime victims and got sketches of the culprits prepared. With the help of these sketches, the investigators started monitoring some suspects. These sketches of the two accused were identical to the ones drawn with help of the victim’s friend, said the officer.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2020